Thursday, May 25, 2017

Adventures Into Weird Worlds #25 Bill Everett and Joe Maneely 1954

I have a couple of fun pre-code horror stories for you today. Both are from Atlas (later, Marvel) and come from Adventures Into Weird Worlds #25 with a cover date of January 1954. Just a short while later this type of comic would not exist, as the Comics Code Authority would ban most horror comics by the end of the year. In fact, this title would be canceled in June of that year with issue #30.

Behind that beautiful cover by Joe Maneely is the first story drawn by the great Bill Everett. Everett began his career in the late 1930's and ended in 1973, the year he passed away. After the 1950's he was in and out of comics while also working in advertising. In my mind, his 1950's output is his greatest as he contributed a large amount of covers and stories for various Atlas titles in every genre. This story is fairly typical of his work during this period.

The second story is drawn by the same man behind the cover, Joe Maneely. Maneely, like Everett, was all over the map at Atlas in the 1950's. He drew every genre the industry produced and he did it damn near better than most anyone. He had a slick, tight, textured style that grabs you and holds you tight as your eyes move across the page. Maneely was Stan Lee's favorite artist at Atlas in the 50's and you can see why. Unfortunately, Maneely died young on June 7, 1958, on an early Sunday morning, To quote Wikipedia, "Maneely had dined hours earlier with fellow laid-off Atlas colleagues, including George Ward and John Severin, in Manhattan. He did not have his glasses with him, and was killed when he accidentally fell between the cars of a moving commuter train on his way home to New Jersey." It's a shame to think of the great works he may have created had he lived a longer life.